When comparing Macchiato vs Byword 2, the Slant community recommends Byword 2 for most people. In the question“What is the best Markdown editor for OS X?”Byword 2 is ranked 3rd while Macchiato is ranked 23rd. The most important reason people chose Byword 2 is:

Byword de-emphasizes the syntax itself, while emphasizing its effects. It appropriately adds style, like italic and bold, to text that's designated by markdown and dims the syntax so it does not getting in the way of comprehension. Additionally, there are commonly used hotkeys (⌘b, ⌘i, etc) that can be used to apply style without having to know the syntax or having to type it out each time.

Pros

Pro

Does not distract the user

Macchiato does not get in the way. It has a minimalist UI that highlights Markdown syntax.

Pro

Support for latest Mac OSX features

Macchiato supports Mac OSX features like fullscreen mode, auto-save and version history.

Pro

Great Markdown support without being intrusive

Byword de-emphasizes the syntax itself, while emphasizing its effects. It appropriately adds style, like italic and bold, to text that's designated by markdown and dims the syntax so it does not getting in the way of comprehension. Additionally, there are commonly used hotkeys (⌘b, ⌘i, etc) that can be used to apply style without having to know the syntax or having to type it out each time.

Pro

Available for all Apple devices

Byword is available on a Mac, an iPhone and iPad.

Pro

Extremely simple

Byword is as simple as Markdown editors can get. Even though Markdown itself is not hard, Byword offers assistance to make it even easier with very little configuration required.

The UI is minimalistic and un-intrusive, the syntax auto-completion is excellent, and there are multiple small but helpful features that make writing Markdown with Byword a breeze.

Pro

Syncs using iCloud and Dropbox

Documents can be synced using iCloud or Dropbox from within the editor for use across all devices.

Pro

Direct publishing to web platforms

Byword allows users to publish their markdown files directly to web platforms such as Wordpress, Tumblr, Blogger and even Evernote.

Pro

Multiple export options

You can export to HTML, PDF, RTF.

Pro

Word count support

Has a built-in word counter.

Pro

Includes features that speed up writing

For example, while authoring a bulleted list hitting return automatically prepares a new bulleted line

Pro

A dark theme is available

For people who enjoy working during the night, there's a dark theme available that reduces strain on the eyes.

Pro

Supports iCloud Drive and Handoff

One of the few (well, Ok, only for far) that has been updated for Yosemite features. Jan 2015.

Pro

Live update support

Byword has a "Preview Markdown" option where it does exactly what it promises. It immediately compiles and displays the rendered Markdown file, making it easy for the user to understand how they are actually formatting their document.

Pro

Supports Multimarkdown

Byword supports all the table types in Multimarkdown including table captions. MathJax support is added via metadata at the beginning of file was well as support for various diagrams. Table of Contents is also supported.

Pro

Updated frequently

Byword gets frequent updates which add new features or fix existing bugs.

Cons

Con

Software is somewhat expensive and there's no trial version to test it out

Macchiato costs $19.99 and offers no way of testing the software before buying.

Con

Publishing requires additional in-app purchase

The feature to publish Markdown files to web services costs and additional $5 of in-app purchase.

Con

Limited customizability

One of the things that makes Byword so easy to use is the fact that it needs very little setup and option-tweaking. However, that severely limits the ability to customize the editor itself. For example, there are only two themes available, a light one and a dark one.